A little more than a week after the Pentagon released new data showing military sexual assault reporting had increased for a fourth consecutive year, members of Congress said they are encouraged by the progress made by Army leaders at Fort Hood to address the systemic shortcomings at the Central Texas post, following the harassment and killing of Spc. Vanessa Guillen.
Fort Hood leaders on Thursday welcomed several members of Congress, including Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Cali., Marc Veasey, D-Texas, and Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, back to the military installation after eight months for follow-up interviews with soldiers to discuss how the toxic culture plaguing the post nicknamed The Great Place had improved.
“As I stood here eight months ago I said this may be the monicker a ‘Great Place,’ but it wasn’t a great place,” Speier said during a press conference at the gates of Fort Hood. “Today I can say with confidence that it’s a much better place than it was eight months ago.”
Congress sees progress, but ‘there are still many areas that require attention’
Speier, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and is also the lead sponsor of a bill to take sexual assault investigations outside a victim’s direct chain of command, has been highly critical of Fort Hood’s leadership for failing to protect soldiers and properly investigate crimes — especially those overseeing the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) and Sexual Harassment Assault Response Prevention Program (SHARP) on post.
“Fort Hood has been placed under a microscope, but I don’t know they are an outlier,” Speier said last week. “I’m concerned we have similar issues at installations around the country. And, this committee will continue to do its oversight responsibilities and evaluate these installations one by one.”
While the visit to Fort Hood encouraged the members of Congress, Speier said she recognized there was still more work to be done to restructure CID and continue to push for better handling of sexual assault cases in the future.
For now, Speier said Fort Hood leaders needed to continue to remedy other issues of mold and lead in military housing on post, in addition to adding further child care support for mothers and fathers who serve.
“There are still many areas that require attention here at Fort Hood, as they do in many of our installations throughout the military,” she said. “I’m happy to say that Fort Hood has taken very seriously the criticisms they’ve received.”
Vanessa Guillen’s death helped expose military sexual assault issues
It was the death of Guillen, who military officials confirmed last month was sexually harassed and retaliated against by a superior before her brutal slaying on April 22, 2020, that was the catalyst to expose the issue of sexual assault and sexual harassment in the military as a whole, but namely at Fort Hood.
Authorities suspect a fellow Fort Hood soldier, Spc. Aaron Robinson, beat Guillen to death with a hammer in an armory room on post. Robinson fatally shot himself July 1 as authorities tried to question him, according to Killeen police.
Before Guillen’s remains were discovered at the end of June, her family led protests outside Fort Hood demanding more answers about the search for their then-missing daughter and sister. Guillen’s mother, Gloria, revealed that her daughter had confided to her that multiple soldiers had been sexually harassing her on post. One of the soldiers Guillen said was harassing her was Robinson, according to the family.
The Guillen’s accusations of sexual harassment by Fort Hood soldiers sparked a national movement under the hashtag #IAmVanessaGuillen, where hundreds of military service members shared their own experiences with sexual abuse. However, Army officials last year often released statements during the movement saying there was no evidence proving Guillen was sexually harassed.
It wasn’t until more than a year later on April 30, just two weeks ago, that the Army confirmed Guillen was sexually harassed by a superior. The same day, the Pentagon released a yearly report saying military officials saw a 3% increase in reporting of sexual abuse in 2019 compared to 2018, which was the same year Guillen’s sexual harassment began.
Rise in sex assault reporting can’t be interpreted as spike in prevalence, military leaders say
Congress requires the secretary of defense to submit an annual report on sexual assaults involving members of the United States Armed Forces. The most recent report, however, is always more than a year behind the current date.
Military leaders in its 2019 report released on April 30 said the increase in reporting cannot be interpreted as an increase in sexual assault prevalence among the active duty force because a survey is only conducted every other year, the next year being in 2020.
The command climate and culture in the military was a hot topic last year after an investigation into Fort Hood found its leaders allowed the post to have a “permissive environment” that led to its culture of sexual harassment without much consequence for the offenders. Military leaders last year acknowledged the issue and promised to change that culture among all ranks throughout the nation, not just at Fort Hood.
2019 report finds military leaders were aware of negative climate and culture toward women
The report released late last month said military leaders in 2019 were already aware of the negative military climate and culture toward female soldiers, where “cynicism about exceptions to standards based on biological differences remain considerable points of contention.”
And, while female soldiers during a study in 2019 said they still struggle to have equal rights to male soldiers in the workplace, Army leaders believed at the time that “male-dominated cultural norms” were “slowly changing, giving way to more inclusive attitudes.”
“Previously admissible ‘locker room’ behaviors face greater scrutiny today, in part due to younger service members being more aware of what constitutes inappropriate behavior,” the report continued.
In 2019, the military received 6,236 reports of sexual assault. There was also another 937 civilians and foreign nationals who said they were assaulted by a service member.
The vast majority of sexual assaults involving service members occurred between people aged 17 to 24 who worked, trained and lived in close proximity. The survey data showed that women soldiers said offenders were most often military men whom they considered to be a friend or acquaintance and who acted alone.
“Some participants noted that they believe victims continue to have concerns regarding confidentiality breaches and indicated that third-party disclosures sometimes discourage victims from participating in the reporting process,” the report said.
Investigators at Fort Hood last year said it was very likely that military sexual assaults far exceeded the cases reported each year. However, because of the confidentiality issues in addition to fears of retaliation, many like Guillen stay quiet or don’t submit unrestricted complaints that allow for formal investigations.
Military officials in the 2019 report said they planned to help promote more reporting of sexual assault in part by addressing command climate issues and problems within the SHARP offices.
Fort Hood leaders are now working to implement planned changes suggested in the 2019 Pentagon report, in addition to the dozens of recommendations made by those called in to investigate Fort Hood last year.
This week, Speier will re-introduce the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act in Washington, D.C. If signed into law, the bill would move prosecution decisions on sexual assault and sexual harassment cases outside the chain of command to an office of the chief prosecutor within each military branch.
It would also create a stand alone military offense for sexual harassment, establish trained sexual harassment investigators who are outside the chain of command of the victim and the accused and create a confidential reporting process for sexual harassment that is integrated with the Department of Defense’s Catch a Serial Offender database.
___
(c) 2021 Austin American-Statesman
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
